Httyd-The Dark Descent
by Vahlance
Summary: Hiccup bumped his head a little too hard. Takes place a little bit before the second movie. I'm not apologizing for any of the bad puns or references. Enjoy.
1. Chapter 1

Ch. 1

Hiccup opened his eyes painfully. How long had he been asleep?

He sat up, cringing at the sudden pain that split through his skull. Placing his hand at the site of the pain he felt a large bump that protruded from the back of his head. He struggled to sit up straight. Hiccup looked around and seemed to be in the forest somewhere? He must have fallen asleep on his outdoor explorations of the island again.

Turning his head to look around- Hiccup gasped

A DRAGON!?

The beast, only inches away from him, nudged at Hiccups right arm. At this Hiccup quickly scrambled backwards, pinning his back against a large rock. The dragon crooned at this response.

"Hold on… Hold on!" Hiccup panted.

Taking in the sight of the majestic and terrifying creature before him Hiccup shivered in fear. He had never seen this type of dragon before….had he? The jet black scales made him instantly think 'Night Fury'.

For some reason it didn't attack. Instead the dragon tilted its head, lowering its body to the ground slightly, almost as if being passive? Hiccup had never seen this type of behavior in a dragon before. They were killing machines that never hesitated to attack at the sight of a Viking. Why wasn't he dead yet?

Then the monster slowly walked toward him, a slight cooing reverberating from its throat. Hiccup tried to push himself further away from the beast, but the boulder leaned against his back instead. Holding his left hand up in a useless, but natural, attempt to protect himself, Hiccup spotted the knife neatly strapped to his forearm. Without so much as _wondering_ how it got there, he unsheathed the tiny blade, clumsily holding it out between him and the dragon.

This didn't seem to faze the black mass of muscle and scales. Instead the dragon paused momentarily to look confusedly at the weapon before continuing its slow worried advance towards the Viking. Hiccup lowered the knife. He then realized how useless such a blade was against an animal as large as the dragon that stood above him. Hiccup cringed away from the warm breath and smell of fish as the beasts face was mere inches from his.

'AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!' Hiccup wanted to scream as he suddenly found himself being licked on the cheek by a warm, wet tongue. Instead it came out as a small "hnnggh".

It licked him? Gently even… Maybe it was trying to decide if there was enough meat on his bones to even bother with such a skinny thing as Hiccup. The boy's body stiffened and his eyes remained clenched shut, waiting for the dragon to snap him in half with its jaws.

Toothless couldn't understand what Hiccup was doing.

Usually his friend would playfully scold him whenever he licked his face. Instead he was acting very strange. What was he trying to do with the sharp metal stick he usually used to sharpen his drawing thing? Why wasn't he moving? It was upsetting.

Hiccup seemed genuinely uncomfortable, maybe he wasn't feeling well? Noting the smell of fear emanating from his shivering friend, Toothless slowly backed away so he was no longer standing directly over the Viking.

He didn't take his eyes off of Hiccup, and Hiccup slowly let his scrunched up eyes open and land on the dragon that had just slobbered all over him.

The Night Fury cooed worryingly at his rider's weird behavior as Hiccup seemed confused and terrified.

Toothless looked around. There wasn't an animal in sight aside from a few birds sitting peacefully, high in a tree to the side and a dozen small fish swimming in circles in the pond directly behind the scared Viking's boulder. The sun was slowly setting behind the evergreen trees and all was silent but the wind and bugs. Nothing dangerous. There was no reason to be afraid. Yet Hiccup seemed absolutely petrified.

'What's wrong?' Toothless knew his friend could usually tell what his coos and other dragon sounds meant.

Hiccup didn't seem to understand and that made Toothless even more concerned. Didn't his human recognize him, his bud?

After a few more seconds of recovery from the dragon tasting his cheek, Hiccup found the feeling in his trembling hands again. He raised the knife up, pointing at the beast a second time, hoping he could make it seem more threating this time. Maybe he could scare the dragon away if he acted more like a brave and strong (and illogical) Viking…kind of like his dad.

But something distracted Hiccup this time as he glanced at his arms stretched out before him clutching his blade. What in Thor's name was he wearing?

It wasn't his usual long green garb with beaten up fur vest. Instead he had leather armor covering a large portion of his arms. Same thing with his chest… There was less leather on his legs but his pants had a lot more sewn up holes than he remembered…Then there were his fe-foot?

"AAAAAAH!"

Hiccup fumbled with the knife before it fell to the ground. Paying no attention to the fact he was now unarmed, he instead focused on how he was…unlegged?

A complicated looking piece of wood and metal clung to his leg in place of his left foot.

Hiccup gasped, forgetting to pay attention to the giant carnivorous beast standing only a few feet in front of him. His body overall seemed…off. He most definitely did not have a peg leg normally and these clothes were obviously someone else's. He looked around frantically. This was a cruel joke, or a weird dream? In the corner of his eye Hiccup spotted the edged of a lake behind him and scrambled towards it on all fours.

Reaching the water's edge he glanced into the calm reflective liquid. He looked like himself…almost. He had a wider jaw and stubble spotted his face where he used to have what could barely be considered peach fuzz. His hair was the same color but longer, among other small differences in his appearance. Hiccup watched his own eyes widen in fear and confusion. Was that him?

He couldn't take another second of looking at that face that was his, but also wasn't. The Viking reeled back from the water's edge but immediately fell down at the sudden remembrance of his missing foot.

Recalling the large, dangerous, deadly, terrifying, DRAGON standing directly behind him, Hiccup quickly wheeled around on the dirt, to face the beast.

It just stood there. Almost calm, however its eyes betrayed the calm stance of the creature. Instead they showed a largely confused and concerned thought process in the dragons mind.

Hiccup was caught off guard by his recognition of such empathetic emotion being displayed by the most feared beast in all of Berk.

"Ok...ok" Hiccup panted. "This is by far the weirdest dream I have EVER had."

Toothless crooned, unable to put together the words Hiccup said and what he possibly could have meant. 'Dreams' were for sleeping as far as the dragon understood from what he'd learned of human language.

Hiccup continued talking to himself. "A big scary dragon that apparently DOESN'T want to eat me… I've gone far beyond puberty, and my leg has decided to detach itself from my body. I would reaaaally like to wake up right about now." Hiccup looked at the dragon before him almost expectantly, but nothing happened.

Toothless just stared back, perking his ears at hearing the expectant tone in his rider's voice.

Hiccup glanced to the side as he pressed his lips together forming a thin frown and raised his eyebrows. Well this was a little awkward seeing as he was talking to a fire-breathing reptile. He sighed through his nose, letting his face relax.

The Viking had seemed to have calmed down a bit and Toothless felt some relief at his human friend acting more like his usual self, though his discomfort was still evident.

It was then that Toothless decided it would be a great time for them to go flying. That always made Hiccup feel better.


	2. Chapter 2

Ch. 2

Well. It seemed at that point Hiccup wasn't going to wake up from his dream. Nope. Instead his inner consciousness would rather absolutely terrify him by making the offspring of lightning and death start chewing on his false leg.

Between uncertain yells of "Heeeelp" and "Ahh!" Hiccup tried to free himself from the wet and slobbery clutch of the Night Fury, to no avail.

Pushing against the Fury's head to try and release his prosthetic and grunting with the effort, Hiccup noticed something strange…

"Huh… tooth-less? I would've thought you'd have teeth…" It was at this point the both of them heard a small click, and the gummy chewing suddenly stopped.

Toothless looked down happily letting his tongue loll out of his mouth. He was able to switch Hiccups walking foot to his riding one all by himself. Now they could both go for a nice flight together and feel better.

Instead of the gentle laughter Toothless expected to sound from Hiccups mouth, there was instead silence for a moment as the Viking peered at the disgusting goop of saliva dripping down his false foot. Then Hiccup noticed the sudden difference in shape.

"Ahhhh, did you break it!?" Hiccup squeaked as high as his new, slightly manlier, voice would go. Now he definitely couldn't run away.

Hiccup sifted through the sticky-fishy-spit trying to assess the damage, only to find that the foot wasn't broken at all. He realized that the overall leg looked similar to a blueprint he recently made for Gobber. The blacksmith had refused the idea of a new leg, claiming he preferred his good ol' wooden peg. The plans, Hiccup recalled, had a metal foot for durability while a spring had been added to help make the step more natural.

This model, however, seemed like it had two other feet tucked away behind a rotating cuff. One foot for walking and the other with a jagged pick like surface, possibly to prevent slipping on ice.

'I never would have thought of that. Wow.' Thought the Viking silently.

He brought his attention to the current foot. The straight piece of metal that protruded now was much too round on the bottom for walking and had a hole poked in the center, closed off by a small locking mechanism.

"What's this supposed to be used for?"

At this point Toothless' patience was wearing thin. He waggled his behind expectantly as Hiccup finally looked up at the excited Night Fury.

Hiccup saw the strange friendly dragon's behavior. Not at all sure what to make of his current situation, he simply made an awkward half smile and chuckled nervously at the terrifying creature.

Toothless didn't like this game and was starting to get frustrated with his rider. He just wanted to go flying, not sit around here watching his Hiccup play dumb. He grumbled in annoyance and made a face that looked almost like pouting. Taking matters into his own jaws, Toothless approached the Viking man and using his hard gums grabbed Hiccup by the back of his collar, flipping him into the air a few feet before catching him in the saddle with a thud.

This of course did not go without complaint by the skinny Viking, who kicked and screamed right until he plopped down onto the dragon's back.

Hiccup sat upright, still dazed from the sudden manhandling, and realized exactly where he was. Sitting atop a dragon was not on the top of his 'Places That Are Safe' list.

Despite his panic Hiccup noticed something strange.

"Is this a saddle?" He stated, more to himself than to the Night Fury. Its shape might have been a bit strange for a saddle but Hiccup found himself knowing exactly what he was perched on immediately. 'Someone rides this thing?' He thought. Maybe that's why the beast hadn't killed him. This dragon must have been tamed by someone. 'How exactly do you go about taming a dragon? I supposed if you just yell at it a lot….'

Through his thoughts Hiccup noticed the Night Fury was looking expectantly up at him over its shoulder. Becoming even more nervous, he just looked back at the large lizard with a tense smile.

There was definitely something wrong here, but Toothless hoped Hiccup was maybe just playing around after all.

Toothless hopped up and down gently to tell the rider he was ready to go.

"Woah!" Hiccup squawked at the sudden movement and tightly clutched the handles placed at the top of the saddle. "Um, Mr. Dragon. Sir… can I get off now…?" he asked apprehensively, afraid that he might somehow offend the beast.

Hiccup seemed to genuinely not understand what was going on.

Toothless peered worriedly over his shoulder at the terrified and stiff man sitting in the saddle. He decided maybe it would be better to take Hiccup back home to Berk where the other Vikings could figure out what was wrong with his friend.

Either way that required flying. But with the state that Hiccup was in, could they even get off of the ground?

First was to get the riders metal leg locked in place so he could control Toothless' leather fin.

Toothless glanced at the Viking mounted on his back, then began to contemplate the metal contraption attached to the rider's saddle that allowed the tailfin to be moved.

Noticing the Night Furies changed attention, Hiccup too began to consider the metal pole. His gaze ran along the pulleys attached to the animal's flank that eventually connected to what looked like a leather fin at the tip of the beast's tail.

"Huh?" he glanced down at the mechanism in puzzlement. Suddenly the Viking man had a realization. He whipped his head around to look at his peg leg next to the metal piece protruding from the saddle.

His curiosity took the better of him. Inhaling deeply, Hiccup gently pressed the edge of the locking mechanism on his foot against the metal bar. The pressure lifted the clasp until the bar fit perfectly through the hole in his prosthetic. With a click he was locked in.

The weight of what this all meant hit Hiccup square in the chest causing him to start panicking again.

He was the dragon's tamer.

At least, the person whose body he was in was the dragon's tamer….

"This is all so messed up! I ride a DRAGON!? Wah-how?" The questions burst out of Hiccups mouth unable to contain his disbelief. "Does dad know about this? I sure hope he doesn't, that would mean I'm…What's going on?"

Cupping his head in his hands, Hiccup began to focus on his erratic breathing and the nauseous feeling building up in his stomach. He wanted to wake up and be comfortable in his bed at home very badly with everything back to normal, but it was evident he wasn't waking up anytime soon. The throbbing pain at the back of his head which he had forgotten, what with all his crazy discoveries, became noticeable once more.

Lifting his face out of his hands, Hiccup ran his fingers through his hair to find the bump again. Even the faint touch caused an explosion of pain. "Ow!" Scrunching his eyebrows together Hiccup examined his hand, there didn't seem to be any blood, but it still hurt like Hel.

Toothless warbled at the sudden exclamation of pain by his friend. His head must have still hurt from their fall.

Even more determined to get Hiccup medical help, Toothless cooed to get his bud's attention.

Hiccup glanced down into the dragon's eyes, they were a similar color to his own and filled with concern.

The beast began to move slowly, turning around so that Hiccup had a view of the leather fin attached to its tail, lifting it to make it even easier to see. Toothless flicked his working tailfin open. Then looked up at Hiccup, indicating him to copy.

It took a moment to process, it was a sudden realization. The metal pole, that Hiccup's prosthetic was now attached to, controlled the pulleys, which controlled the tailfin. This was a symbiotic relationship, not a master and servant one.

"Oh." Hiccup breathed. Deciding it was better to do as the dragon wanted, the Viking began fiddling with the mechanism, pulling his metal foot forwards and back. It took a bit more finesse than expected and he ended up either not pushing the lever far enough, or pushed it too far, with the tailfin clanking into the designated positions. After a few painfully long seconds of failed attempts, Hiccup breathed in deeply and decided he was over-thinking it.

With the next try he simply did, rather than tried, and was surprised to find how easily the fin clicked into the correct position from just feeling it out. Hiccup's muscles seemed to know exactly what to do where his brain didn't.

Even without looking Toothless would have been able to tell the fin was finally in the correct position for steady flight. Wanting desperately to get his friend fixed as soon as they could, the dragon wiggled his body spreading his feet apart and-

"AaaAAAAAAAaaAAHHH!"

He shot up into the air with the screaming Viking holding on desperately to the handles of his saddle.


End file.
